Mission
The Oregon Jewish Museum and Center for Holocaust Education explores the legacy of the Jewish experience in Oregon, teaches the enduring and universal relevance of the Holocaust, and provides opportunities for intercultural conversations.
History
Jews have lived in Oregon for more than 165 years, but only in the last 40 have we sought to publicly honor and document our contributions. The idea for a Jewish museum in Portland began in 1988 when Portland native Alice Meyer (1929–2022), inspired by a Jewish museum she had visited in Manchester, England, returned home determined to create something similar. She shared her vision with Rabbi Joshua Stampfer (1921–2019), who the following year convened a community conversation about the need for a museum dedicated to Jewish cultural life. Together, they galvanized support and formed the founding board of the Oregon Jewish Museum (OJM), with Meyer serving as its first president in 1990.
In its early years, OJM operated as a “museum without walls.” Its debut exhibition, The Jews of Greece, opened at Multnomah County Central Library, followed by shows in venues throughout Portland. A 1995 merger with the inactive Jewish Historical Society of Oregon brought stewardship of archival collections dating back to 1973. With this responsibility, the museum sharpened its mission and sought a permanent home.
In 1999 OJM moved into its first public space at Montgomery Park. The opening exhibition, Jews, Germany, Memory by photographer Edward Serotta, drew 300 visitors on opening night. A year later, the museum relocated to a storefront in Old Town. There it launched its first large-scale curated exhibition, A Call to Serve: Oregon Jews in the Armed Services, which opened on Veterans Day 2001, just two months after 9/11. For the first time, the museum invited the community to contribute objects, photographs, and stories of military service. The exhibition was a tremendous success, boosting both the museum’s visibility and credibility, and establishing a model that continues to generate new research and enrich the collection.
As membership and attendance grew, OJM moved in 2009 to a larger building in Northwest Portland. Expanded galleries made possible a wide range of exhibitions and programs, from Transport, featuring the work of Henk Pander and Esther Podemski, to Project Mah Jongg, Sukkah PDX, That’s All Folks: The Story of Mel Blanc, and Auto/Biography: Portraits of People With Cars. Public lectures and films further enhanced the museum’s role as a cultural hub.
A transformative moment came in 2014 with OJM’s merger with the Oregon Holocaust Resource Center (founded in 1984). The new Oregon Jewish Museum and Center for Holocaust Education (OJMCHE) broadened its mission and deepened its impact. With a full-time Holocaust educator on staff and stewardship of the Oregon Holocaust Memorial in Washington Park, the museum brings thousands of students each year to learn about the Holocaust and its enduring lessons. OJMCHE affirms that Holocaust education is among the most powerful ways to confront intolerance and affirm the value of diversity, and for many Oregon students, a visit to OJMCHE is their first encounter with this history.
In 2016 OJMCHE purchased its current home at 724 NW Davis Street on the North Park Blocks, doubling its size. The building includes an auditorium, state-of-the-art archives and collections storage, an education lab, a museum shop, and a café, allowing for robust programming and community partnerships. In 2023, the museum expanded again, opening the core exhibition Human Rights After the Holocaust in a new adjacent gallery.
From its humble beginnings as a “museum without walls,” OJMCHE has grown into a cornerstone of Portland’s cultural landscape. Today, its exhibitions and programs celebrate Jewish contributions to world culture, explore questions of identity, and confront the forces of antisemitism and prejudice, ensuring that the lessons of history continue to resonate.
